A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

perhaps ultimately by the vizier.^401 While the property effectively

belonged to the workman, he could not alienate or share it with

others. Naturally, people might also build for themselves other struc-

tures which they could in fact freely alienate. This system was bound

to produce disputes revolving around the individual’s right to dis-

pose of a piece of property. In O. BM 5624, for example, there is

a case concerning the inheritance of such a Deir el-Medina tomb,

apparently allocated by the state. The plaintiff declares: “He (the

chief-administrator of the town) gave the tomb of PN to my (fore)-

father by order. My mother, PN, his daughter, was his only child.

He had no male child. His places had remained deserted.”^402

There is evidence in Deir el-Medina for joint property.^403 In

O. Florence 2620, for example, a man transfers possession of a house

to two workers jointly.^404

6.1.2.2 Private individuals make endowments of land in support of

statue cults.^405 These transactions have been variously interpreted.^406

In the New Kingdom, people may link their own funerary or mor-

tuary endowments with those of the kings. For example, a high func-

tionary may create an offering cult to the royal statue. After the

offerings are presented to the royal statue, they are presented to his

own. Such a procedure was thought to provide maximum security

for the mortuary cult—always a concern for Egyptians.^407

6.1.2.3 Plunder and the rewards of successful soldiers also form a

special type of property. The king effectively owned captured ene-

mies, whom he would then distribute to individual soldiers.^408

6.2 Servitudes

Servitudes were occasionally a subject of legal dispute. O. Cairo

25555, for example, seems to deal in part with a conflict over the

right of way, which is decided by oracular decision.^409

(^401) Cf. McDowell, Jurisdiction.. ., 123, 125.
(^402) Allam, Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 44.
(^403) Janssen, Commodity Prices.. ., 531–33.
(^404) Allam, Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 147.
(^405) See Hoverstreydt, “A Letter...”
(^406) Ibid., 117. See also McDowell, “Legal Aspects.. .,” 203ff.
(^407) Allam, “De la divinité.. .,” 29.
(^408) Lorton, “Legal and Social Institutions.. .,” 351.
(^409) Allam, Hieratische Ostraka.. ., 59; McDowell, Jurisdiction.. ., 294.
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